In the south of the constellation of Perseus lies an immense cloud of dust that light cannot penetrate. It is about 600 light years away and weighs more than 10,000 suns, although perversely, the individual dust particles are mostly less than a thousandth of a millimetre across. Beyond the dust is so dark that you can’t see where the edge is, other than the sudden absence of stars. A glimmer of light emerges from the near edge of this cloud. The glow was given the imaginative name of NGC 1333. This was for the purposes of cataloguing, but given its intriguing, ethereal appearance I bet someone out there has called it something. There are some super deep pictures of this on the web, and had I used a red-sensitive camera I would be looking at some sparkly bits to the lower edge of the picture. All that shows up on my picture is a very faint line near the bottom.
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Looking into the vast pit of darkness
In the south of the constellation of Perseus lies an immense cloud of dust that light cannot penetrate. It is about 600 light years away and weighs more than 10,000 suns, although perversely, the individual dust particles are mostly less than a thousandth of a millimetre across. Beyond the dust is so dark that you can’t see where the edge is, other than the sudden absence of stars. A glimmer of light emerges from the near edge of this cloud. The glow was given the imaginative name of NGC 1333. This was for the purposes of cataloguing, but given its intriguing, ethereal appearance I bet someone out there has called it something. There are some super deep pictures of this on the web, and had I used a red-sensitive camera I would be looking at some sparkly bits to the lower edge of the picture. All that shows up on my picture is a very faint line near the bottom.
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